Rachel Maddow doesn’t seem to have much in common with John Oliver. But starting next month, the MSNBC host and HBO comic will offer viewers something similar: a show that breaks down the news just once a week.
Beginning in May, Maddow will scale back her duties at MSNBC, moving from what had been a five-day-a-week role to hosting only on Mondays, as she revealed to viewers tonight. She’s changing her schedule after signing a new deal with NBCUniversal that gives her the aegis of a broader range of projects, including podcasts and movies.
“I still have all these other irons in the fire, all these other things that I’m working on that I want to get done, none of them are fast, they all take a long time and I’m still working. on all of them,” Maddow said on his MSNBC show Monday night. She delivered her comments after returning from a week-long hiatus that allowed her to deal with some of those new content initiatives.
MSNBC did not announce a successor to its 9 pm hour, which Maddow has hosted since September 2008, when it starred Keith Olbermann. Instead, the network will display a rotation of anchors. Ali Velshi and Alex Wagner have been among those who have filled in for Maddow in recent weeks.
Maddow may appear more frequently on occasion. She is expected to appear on other days of the week for special coverage and major news events, including the midterm elections.
His departure from the other four days of the week leaves MSNBC with a new challenge to navigate: How does he keep viewers coming to one of the most competitive hours on cable news television when the anchor who draws so many of them no this? appearing regularly?
MSNBC’s rivals have faced similar obstacles. Fox News managed to attract a new audience to its 7 p.m. hour with a rotation of anchors after moving anchor Martha MacCallum to an earlier time slot. Now, talk show host Jesse Watters is winning larger audiences at 7 pm, where he has made his permanent home.
But 7 pm and 9 pm are very different times in the cable news business. For the past several years, 9 p.m. has been a place for some of the hottest talk on cable, with Maddow competing with former CNN host Chris Cuomo and Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Some of that heat dissipated after the departure of former President Donald Trump.
Maddow’s show took in nearly $66.2 million in advertising in a pandemic-plagued 2020, according to Kantar, an ad spend tracker, only slightly less than the $69.2 million it took in in 2019. The show’s top sponsors in 2021 have included advertisers such as Procter & Gamble’s Marea and Mazda.
Maddiow is grouped with other cable talk show hosts, but he cuts a different figure than many of them by focusing intensely on very granular research. Few other presenters can start with a 22-minute essay on a larger topic that often includes history and context along with the news of the day. Maddow does, and even hosts like Fix News’ Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have expressed admiration for his skills, if not the politics he espouses on his show.
MSNBC may find people to succeed Rachel Maddow, but it’s not yet clear if the network can replace her.
Reference-variety.com